Young candidates' secret Facebook page as they unite for local elections

Sunday, 21 July 2019

A secret Facebook page is part of a nationwide move by young candidates for their generation to be heard in October's local body elections.

From mayoral to local board campaigns, the mostly 20-somethings are determined to gain a democratic foothold and inspire one of the least-likely groups of voters to tune-in.

Unusually in politics, their pitch to voters is less about 'Why me' and more about 'Why my generation', and the communities they represent. 

Before nominations officially opened on Friday more than 60 people under 40 had confirmed their intentions to run. 

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Just 6 per cent of people elected in the 2016 local elections were younger than 40. Meanwhile, 15 to 39 year olds made up up 34 per cent of the country's population.

No data is held on the ages of who does vote.

Young candidates have stood for local bodies in the past - Westland District's deputy mayor Latham Martin was first elected as a 19 year old in 2013.

For 2019, across the country there is a new level of mutual support and networking, linking those wanting to make a difference.

One part of that is the Facebook page, 'Young People taking over Local Government 2019', which has a 'secret' status meaning it's invisible except to its members.

'It enables us to support candidates across the country - 40 young members - with a database of who is running,' said Sarah Colcord, who at 22 is seeking a second term on Auckland Council's Manurewa Local Board.

Colcord said it follows an upswing in civic participation by young people, seen most vividly in the recent School Strike for Climate marches.

They see having young, and young brown, faces in politics as critical in getting more young people involved in decision-making.

'We don't have a lot of young people voting in local body elections, especially young Māori, or Māori in general, to be involved in these processes when people don't look like you - you might not care,' said Jacqueline Paul, who is standing for the Papakura Local Board.

The candidates spoken to by Stuff repeatedly downplayed their own profiles, and referred frequently to serving their communities and being flag-bearers for their young peers.

Paul talked of the importance of having young politicians to connect with young people about decision-making.

'Remove all the political and council lingo, and comm that with young people so they understand why they should care, what does it mean, and how these decisions that are made without us, influence our future.'

Chloe Swarbrick, at the age of 22, ran third in the last Auckland mayoral race, and a year later was a Green MP in Parliament.

The now 25-year old is referred to often by those in this year's movement, but Swarbrick thinks it's unfair for new candidates to be compared with her.

'Unfortunately I think comparisons like that are going to persist until the presence of young people at all levels of government is normalised.

'Interestingly though when I put my name forward for Parliament there were a huge number of comparisons with Marilyn Waring, to the point where I thought I have to meet her,' said Swarbrick.

She believes the recent marches on climate change are part of what's influencing the movement.

'Young people are basically feeling a sense of urgency about the issues that face society,' she said.

'I kinda find it funny that we are trying to unpick why it is that so many young people are running now, but if we look at it in context it's not 'so many young people', it's so many young people compared to the normal scenario.'

With a degree in Applied Management and a scholarship in Poland under her belt, 21 year-old Jannaha Henry is working on the young candidate movement.

She said it was important that it was not seen as one generation against another.

'It's not about saying we know what's going on, that we're over this voice because you guys have been here for years and have been doing the same thing, it's not that at all.

'We're trying to include them as well - let us join the table and let us have the conversation with you and work these things out together.'

The movement sees itself about generating young voting and involvement, and doesn't want to be judged just on election results.

'If we get one person voting, we win,' said Henry.

'If someone picks up the pen and ticks the box that means people are engaging, that means people understand and want to be part of the conversation.'

LOUISE HUTT

Twenty-six-year-old Louise Hutt describes campaigning for Hamilton mayor and Hamilton West councillor as like 'an extended job interview and also a marathon'.

Hutt is the chief executive of social enterprise electricity company For Our Good and a board member of environment group Go Eco but makes time to connect with other candidates.

Earlier this week Hutt met Swarbrick for breakfast and had just hung up a Skype call with another young local body hopeful from Rotorua when she spoke to Stuff.

Having other young people to talk to who could relate to the 'incredible, ridiculous, bizarre' experience was affirming, she said.

'This campaign bonds you to the people who go through it with you. This is the start of some beautiful friendships I think.'

Hutt has a spreadsheet with the names of everyone under 40 she knew of who was standing for election across the country. 

Each time another name was added to the list, she was heartened.

SOPHIE HANDFORD

Freshly 18, Sophie Handford was looking forward to voting for the first time this year.

But after finding out a bit about the candidates standing for her local body authority - Kāpiti Coast District Council - she struggled to find anyone she identified with or who seemed concerned about what she considered to be big issues facing her generation - climate change, youth homelessness, community resilience.

So she decided to become that person: 'I kind of just thought that it's worth throwing my hat in the ring and just seeing what comes of it.'

Since announcing her candidacy, Handford has joined forces with other young candidates in the Wellington region to hand out enrolment packs at local schools.

It wasn't about self promotion, she said. They wanted to do their bit to lift voter turnout, especially among the young.

She is also speaking at the Festival for the Future - a conference for people aged 13 to 30-something next weekend to encourage them to take action against climate change.

Handford, who helped organise the Strike 4 Climate, said she and her counterparts across the country had created a 'support network'. 

Many of the younger candidates wanted action on similar issues and this was to their advantage.

'There's a lot of power in banding together and uniting for a common goal or a common vision nationally,' Handford said.

'There is this whole kind of notion of a 'youth quake' and I'm definitely feeling that. It's awesome to be a part of that.'

TALEI BRYANT

Life-long Waimana resident and youth worker Talei Bryant, 22, used to see the council as 'the enemy' - believing they weren't interested in helping her in her mission to empower local youth to reach their full potential.

But, after realising that 'in order make an impact and a change you have to be in those decision maker positions', her attitude has changed.

Bryant is running for the Whakatāne mayoralty and councillor for the Whakatāne-Ōhope ward in a bid to show other youth 'that we can do it'.

'When all the people who are in those positions now are gone, if there's no one who's been trained up and no one who's been listening now about how everything runs then it's just going to fall to pieces.'

Last year, she co-founded the organisation Find Your Fish, which runs a range of workshops to help youth discover their passion and turn that into a career.

'Coming from a rural community I've always wanted to push for the rural kids to get the same opportunity as in towns,' she said.

Bryant sees co-operation - both between young people and intergenerationally - as essential to making change.

She hopes sharing her story at the millennial conference Festival for the Future in Wellington next weekend, will inspire other young people to strive for their goals.

'Not everyone wants to run for council but for those who want to, for those really want to make an impact them to just go hard.'

SARAH COLCORD

At 22, Sarah Colcord is already coming to the end of her first term in local government, as one of eight members elected to Auckland Council's Manurewa Local Board.

'It's been very very intense, overwhelming, but rewarding,' said Colcord who has the arts, community and events portfolio, and a salary of $46,408.

She's a born and bred Manurewa local, who stepped into the second tier of the country's biggest local body two years after leaving James Cook High School with university entrance.

'I've come into this space with limited knowledge and life experience and no qualifications - I just came in with what I know.'

Colcord is typical of a loose network of young aspiring leaders who speak about representing not only their generation, but also their communities and often ethnicity.

She has already grappled with the pressure of being in a political team, opting this time to leave the dominant Manurewa Action ticket, and run as an independent.

'Often I felt being in a ticket or team environment, I was quite hidden.'

Colcord is proud of her term, having delivered a campaign pledge for a creative youth centre in Manurewa, one of the local board areas with Auckland's lowest household incomes.

The local board role is envisaged as 12 to 24 hours a week, but Colcord said it is more like 25 to 40 hours, with the portfolio structure used in Manurewa.

At the same time she completed a graduate diploma in event management.

Colcord found some aspects of being a young person in local government hard.

'I have been mistaken for someone's PA more times than I can count.

'To go into meetings and peoples' assumption of you is that you are not a board member - I've had to work a bit harder to hold myself in that space.'

JACQUELINE PAUL

At 25, Jacqueline Paul in October will not only stand in her first local body election, but it will be the first one she has voted in.

'It's been an interesting journey, not exactly where I thought as a 16 year-old, I'd end up,' said Paul.

She is seeking one of six seats on Auckland Council's Papakura Local Board, which counts among its current members former Labour cabinet minister George Hawkins.

Paul is clear about what her campaign is about, serving her whānau, the community that's been home for 15 years, and getting young people to understand why they should care about voting.

The landscape architecture graduate is now carrying out research at AUT, as part of the Building Better Homes, Towns & Cities National Science Challenge.

It's a topic relevant to the southern, poorer town of Papakura where growth and intensification is an issue.

'We have a lot of Māori and lower socio-economic families and I'm worried about gentrification,' said Paul.

Paul tuned in to elections in only the last two to three years, voting for the first time with her sisters in the 2017 general election, and cut her political teeth on the council's Youth Advisory Panel and local youth council.

As with Colcord, bringing other young people into taking part is a big element.

'I am excited - not about having my face put up on the side of the street.

'It's about being in these positions so you can share with other young people.'

JOSHUA LOVE

Two unrelated happenings decided Joshua Love that he would chase the one million voters who can elect the mayor of Auckland.

The 27-year-old coffee-maker who owns four micro outlets in the CBD came across a homeless man working on a bicycle in Queen St.

'I started talking to him, and tried to figure out what he was trying to do, and at the same time I saw John Palino was running for his third time and thought - 'if he can do it why can't I?''

Love says his ambitions have not been inspired by Swarbrick.

'The only thing I know about Chloe Swarbrick is she did very well to get as many votes as she did, but she and I have different ideas, and I'll be running my campaign my way.'

Love said accountability would be a policy theme, but wasn't giving away other details ahead of a launch at the start of August.

'I don't have the wealth of knowledge that a lot of the older generation do have, but I have the ability to learn quick.'

Despite running a business, Love doesn't see himself as the 'business candidate'. 

'I would bring a certain business perspective to my campaign but I'm only a coffee maker, the biggest thing I bring from my business is the ability to talk to everybody and anybody.'

Love said he didn't think of his age when he decided to run, only the number of Aucklanders who are over what he called 'the same political nonsense in council', and wanted change.

'You look at the state of Auckland as a super city and look at 20 to 30 years ago, and look at the people who've run it,  and ask has Auckland grown for the better, or has it not.'